History Roundtable participants:
Amelia Sleet Burton of Perryville: Burton was born and raised in the Perryville area. She went to a one-room, all-black school in Perryville, where she graduated after the eighth grade, and then attended Bate School in Danville where she graduated in 1933. She received a provisional teaching certificate from Kentucky State University when she was 18 and taught at all-black, one-room schools. She attended KSU and graduated in 1942. She taught at the black Perryville Elementary School for 18 years and then, after integration, at Danville's previously all-white Jennie Rogers Elementary School for 15 years. She is the widow of James Albert Burton.
Helen Fisher Frye of Danville: Frye was born and raised in Danville. She attended the old, all-black, Bate School where she graduated in 1938. She received a bachelor's degree from Kentucky State University and went on to earn master's degrees from the University of Kentucky, Indiana University and Ohio State University. She taught for 40 years, including tenures at a one-room school in Boyle County and at Bate. She is married to John "Tump" Frye.
Charles D. Grey, 65, of Danville
Grey was born in Danville and raised on Green Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard. Graduated from the old Bate School, Danville's all-black school for students kindergarten-12th grade, in 1960. He left Danville in 1965, moving to Jessamine County, Erlanger and Scott County. He returned to Danville a few years ago. He worked at Square D and is retired from IBM in Lexington. He is married with two children. He has written a book on Bate School and is considered the school's historian.
James Hunn, 66, of Danville
Hunn was born and raised in Lincoln County, he graduated from the old, all-black Lincoln High School in Stanford in 1958. He attended Kentucky State University for a year and then joined the Marine Corps in 1960. He moved to Danville in 1962 and worked as a janitor at a local plant. He worked for Norfolk-Southern for 20 years, until 1985, and then worked 10 years for the state. He has studied, written and spoken extensively about Camp Nelson in Jessamine County, where thousands of black union soldiers were encamped, and he has been involved with Camp Nelson re-enactments, portraying "Free Frank." He is married.
Tim Napier, 51, of Danville: Napier was born and raised in Danville. He attended the old, all-black Bate School for four years and then, after integration, went to the previously all-white Hogsett Elementary School and then on to the newly-integrated Danville High School, where he graduated in 1974. He completed criminal justice courses at Eastern Kentucky University and worked for 27 years for the state, including a stint with the state Department of Highways and a longer tenure with the state Department of Corrections. He retired from Corrections a few years ago after working his way up to the post of deputy warden for security at Northpoint Training Center, a state medium-security prison in Boyle County. He is co-owner and operator with his wife of Kentucky Tours and Travel, and he also serves as bishop of the Church of God of America Inc.
Ann Ross Sleet of Perryville: Sleet was born and raised in the Crab Orchard area of Lincoln County. She started her education in a all-black, one-room school in the Crab Orchard area and then "moved to the city" and attended an all-black elementary there. She went to the eighth through 12 grades at the all-black Lincoln High School in Stanford, where she graduated in 1949. She graduated from a licensed practical nursing program and worked at the old Kentucky State Hospital north of Danville. She also worked for the state child support program. She worked a total of 34 years for state agencies. She is the mayor of Perryville. She is the widow of Raymond Sleet.
